In an interview with the Colombian newspaper El Espectador, Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, the new president of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), discusses the urgency of fully implementing Colombia's historic peace accord to address the delicate human rights situation currently affecting the country, as well as the bilateral relationship with the United States following the police abuses that garnered international attention after this year's mass protests.
"Colombia is at the top of WOLA's concerns. That for so many years, consecutively, Colombia continues to appear in all global reports—and not only in Latin America—as the most dangerous and most unsafe country, the most inhumane to defend the environment, for doing community work, is unacceptable," says Jiménez Sandoval.
"The pandemic is a mirror where negative patterns and practices in Latin America are reflected," she added. And not only has it exacerbated existing inequalities in the world's most unequal region, generating an unprecedented wave of human migration, but it has also created new obstacles for human rights defenders in the region. "Advocacy opportunities and opportunities to weave connections with the [U.S.] administration are obviously more limited," says our president.
WOLA is translating and republishing this interview, originally published by El Espectador, with permission. The interview also addresses the need for a democratic transition in Venezuela; the worrisome situation for migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border; and the impact of climate change and authoritarianism on the region's human rights situation.
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